While cork and bamboo have long been viewed as strong sustainable flooring options, suppliers have continued to improve construction, finishes, style and design. In fact, technological advancements are playing a major role in helping suppliers deliver high performing, fashion forward cork and bamboo floors.

Cork and bamboo vendors have historically touted these products’ green story — the fact that both regenerate faster than traditional hardwood floors — and that hasn’t changed.

“Bamboo is a grass, it can be harvested every 5 to 6 years; cork is harvested every nine years. Any plant that can regenerate under a 10 year harvest cycle is considered a rapidly renewable product under the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) guidelines,” explained Gary Keeble, marketing, product manager, USFloors, adding that the company was among the first to bring bamboo to market on a national scale.

Green, however, is often a challenging story to tell on the retail floor when it comes to floor covering. But suppliers said that bamboo has gained momentum as the sustainable story takes hold, particularly when it comes to performance.

Caitlyn Kari, marketing manager at Teragren, said that bamboo’s market share is growing because of the price, performance and style it offers. “At Teragren, we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, and over the past 20 years, we’ve established a brand reputation that retailers can trust, and we’ve proven that our products perform. Another factor is the continuing rise in popularity of strand bamboo products,” she said.

The availability of resources has also helped to propel the category forward, particularly today when hardwood supply and demand is out of balance.

“Bamboo resources are good and plentiful. Also, costs are low while the performance of the floor is high. Particularly in the strand woven category, products are extremely durable and long lasting. Plus, it’s still relatively cost competitive,” said Joe Garofalo, executive vice president, Home Legend.

David Keegan COO of Bamboo Hardwoods, added that skilled labor is an important part of the equation. “If you don’t have a highly trained and skilled worker operating expensive machinery, you don’t get the true value out of the machine. The quality of the workforce in the bamboo industry has improved,” he said.

Keegan also said that with new technology available and an improving economy, bamboo is poised for continued growth. “With the recession ending and the economy coming back, the focus has been brought back to green, sustainable material. Bamboo has been in growth mode for us as we’ve seen an uptick in our higher-end Hybrid line. I hope it’ll grow from 3 to 5 percent of hardwood sales to 6 to 7 percent of hardwood sales,” noted Keegan. “It’s important for consumers to know that bamboo is an efficient plant. It photosynthesizes and creates biomass from sunlight using the least amount of resources. It’s very sustainable.”

New style, design in bamboo

Strand woven bamboo in particular continues to surge in popularity as new designs and styling hits the market.

Keeble at USFloors said that strand woven bamboo comprises the bulk of USFloors’ bamboo business. The company’s newly introduced Muse line of strand woven bamboo features an HDF engineered construction, allowing for improved stability.

“By producing Muse on an HDF core construction, we’re providing for a stable product but it still gets the benefits of the durable hardness of bamboo. And, its even more sustainable than a traditional bamboo floor because the HDF core is recyclable and it’s composed of wood content — cork is attached to the back of the board. It’s a product that will perform well in any climate, from arid to humid,” said Keeble.

Better performing finishes are also being developed such as the two new products from Teragren that feature a hard wax oil finish. Kari said that the company chose to bring them to market in 2014 because they offered increased design, easy maintenance and repairability. “The trend towards prefinished hard wax-oil flooring is big right now in the hardwood category overall, and the matte finish and open grain look characteristic of this finish looks great on bamboo as well,” she said, adding that the repairability of the product is what is going to make these products a fantastic solution-sell for both commercial and retail customers. “Scratches and dings can be easily spot repaired by the homeowner, and broad refurbishment is also feasible DIY. Additionally, there are no long wait times for repairs, as most can be walked on within one to two hours, or overnight for a major refurbishment of the entire floor,” she said.

Adhesives used in strand woven bamboo have also improved, according to Keegan at Bamboo Hardwoods. “Advancements in kilns and finishing room technology have been huge for the bamboo market. You can’t make a quality bamboo floor if you don’t have modern, high-tech kilns that are drying the raw material evenly. It’s also crucial to utilize an adhesive that forms a strong bond to the bamboo material,” he said.

Hardwood’s plight is bamboo’s gain

The rise of lumber prices that have plagued the hardwood category for more than a year now is benefitting bamboo. Bamboo, in fact, is plentiful throughout Portugal and China.

“When a customer walks into a retailer and asks for hardwood, but is able to see that they can get the look and quality they want with bamboo at a lower price, that is going to impact the category’s market share,” noted Kari at Teragren. “The major focus then is continuing to get the message out to retailers that bamboo is a competitive product in the hardwood category across price, performance and style considerations, and might be able to help them close a sale.”

Keegan at Bamboo Hardwoods added, “Bamboo is not being hit with the same taxes and anti-dumping issues as imported hardwood. Any time you have a product where the quality stays the same but price is lower relative to rest of the market it’ll be a great fit and that’s what we’re experiencing.”

Cork’s rise in popularity

Cork has also made tremendous strides in durability, style and design making it a strong competitor against other products within the hardwood market.

“Our sales last year in the Wicanders branded products has eclipsed the record levels reached during the mid 2000’s before the economic collapse that we are now coming out of. The consumer sees the fresh new visuals that cork flooring has to offer while realizing the health benefits associated with cork, and now finding that it is also in very affordable price points for them,” noted Tim Tompkins, national marketing director at Amorim Flooring North America. “Cork flooring is going through a major fashion rejuvenation and is becoming well-known for being a very healthy floor, and also one of the greenest flooring products in the world.”

According to Tompkins, the hottest trend in cork flooring is the new digital/direct print looks. These trends, he added, are available in the Artcomfort collection from Wicanders. And, the company has expanded upon these looks with new six-foot plank wood visuals.

“New advancements are being made with the transition into wider and longer cork products. Cork’s traditional looks originated in 18 by 24 inch tiles and 12 by 36 inch panels. Now cork is going linear — 5 ½ by 48 and 8 by 72 — in wood visuals providing the consumer with familiar looks that they embraced during the late 1990’s,” he said.

Digital printing boosts the look of the cork floor because the image is printed directly onto the cork surface therefore enhancing the natural texture of the cork floor.

USFloors’ Cork Canvas collection features digital printing and consists of 18 by 24 inch tiles with stone looks. This past year the company added hardwood looks to the line as well as a Kleiberit finish.

“We’ve been receiving positive feedback, especially on our Artic Oak visual — white wash is still very popular,” said Keeble. “Cork is a growing category for us and it’s a great profit opportunity. We updated our entire cork line last year. We took all the products down to 10.5 mm in thickness to make it more price competitive to other flooring types.”

Suppliers agreed that while cork is indeed gaining momentum, it is still important to educate retailers and consumers about cork’s inherent benefits, and its style and design capabilities.

“Cork has all the best benefits of soft surface; it’s warm and comfortable underfoot, and like hardwood it adds value to a home. It’s maintained like a wood floor but, in addition, it absorbs sound; it naturally resists mold and mildew; it naturally resists pests like termites; it offers thermal insulation; and, it’s naturally resistant to fire. One of the challenges of marketing cork is that it has so many great benefits, it’s hard to choose just one,” said Keeble.

Teragren’s new introductions feature a hard wax-oil finish.

Art Comfort, from Amorim’s Wicanders brand, touts all of the latest cork trends including long boards and unique visuals.